Deeds of Suspicion and Suspense

Plunging into raptured innocence and mistrust, Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001) and Body of Lies (2008) operate on an electrifyingly dark moral spectrum where rooting for the bad guys doesn’t seem so wrong after all.

Picking up where Jodie Foster left off 10 years earlier, Julianne Moore plays a fragmented Clarice Starling to Anthony Hopkins’s Dr. Hannibal Lector, the ever-enticing, never-trusting anthropophagite, in Hannibal. Hannibal the cannibal seeks out Clarice this time, inviting her to Italy where she is entangled with a Florentine detective named Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini). Guts are gorged and brains are eaten, but the story isn’t in the violence; it’s in the winning yet disconcerting charm of Hannibal. Trusting the flesh-eating mastermind makes you question your own sanity, but are Hannibal’s morals really that far off?

Enter the earnest and intriguing Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Body of Lies. Ferris fabricates his own terrorist organization to combat a real one, only to find himself rejecting the very job he set out to do (and falling in love at the same time). That moral gray area does not separate into black and white easily, but wheels you around until you find yourself mistrusting everyone (even the 50-pounds-heavier Russell Crowe).

With consuming wariness, Clarice and Roger make solitary decisions, leaving them to question their own morals as well as those of the criminals they’re after. All the while leaving you wondering: Who is this grotesquely disfigured Mason Verger seeking revenge on Dr. Lector? Do we trust Ferris because he’s CIA or because he’s Leonardo DiCaprio? What would a world with Hannibal’s morals actually look like (minus the cannibal part, of course)? There’s only one way to answer these questions…

CONTEST: Suggest your own creative double feature of Scott films for a chance to win free tickets! There are two ways to enter:

1. Tweet your double feature using the hashtag #DoubleScott along with a link to the series page.2. Post your double feature on Facebook with a link to the series page and email a link or screenshot to contest@filmlinc.com.

Entries close Friday, May 25 at noon. Winners will be randomly chosen from all entries and contacted on Friday afternoon. Good luck!

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